My first pin!

My first pin is available in my Dina Fragola shop! 
It is just as cute as I'd hoped!

But the backing card is wrong. I wrote the company about that but 24 hours later I still got no answer.
I sure won't be recommanding that company LOL. They were not very comfortable to deal with even before that, you know  that weird gut feeling...It's too bad because the end products are really good quality.
I'll be trying  another company for my next patch and pin.

The silver lining of the wrong backing card is that I can promote the pin not only as a cat paw (the design is based on the paw of my cat Diego) but also as a dog and bunny paw (thanks, people for the idea...)
The pin is 8.50 Euro, max 2 euros shipping (depending on where you live), free shipping in Belgium and /or if shipped with another item. Get it here!

New in my plug/ gauge shop

Now in my Captain Cosmos plug shop you get a free pair of silicone sleeper plugs with the purchase of any pair of gauges from size  4mm(6g) to 25mm(1").
Offer will most likely last 200 years as my shops seem to have completely disappeared from the Etsy grid :'(

The Captain Cosmos plug, quirky jewelry and cuff links on Etsy.

PS: You can still get the super cool rainbow cat patch in my Dina Fragola shop ;)

September reading list

Glow-in-the-dark Mothman pin by Maiden Voyage Clothing

Not read yet:
Driving blind by Ray Bradbury. 
One of my top 5 favorite authors so it's always a treat to find a book I haven't read yet. Collection of short stories.
Mysterious creatures 
Cheap book part of an Atlas anthology. Yeah, OK, not quality work...but it has Mothman on the cover (in case you don't know the Mothman, check my post here). It has no Mothman stories inside though...so seriously disappointed here.
Partly read:
Brain and meditation by Matthieu Ricard and Wolf Singer. Not light reading but it sounds very interesting. Really interesting but it takes lots of concentration to read...so I won't finish it right away.
Miss Seeton by Hampton Charles. 
I hated this one. Supposedly a sort of comedy detective story. Not sure why that series is so popular in the UK. Couldn't get past page 40. 
The smiling man by Henning Mankell.
Reading it right now. Really good. Great characters. Great story. Great writing (even translated). You may be familiar with the TV show Wallander with Kenneth Brannagh. The show is great too. Not very cheerful though.
Read:
Ponyo storybook based on the Miyazaki movie (one of my all time favorites).
Loved it, I discovered all sort of little details I had never noticed.
The art of  My Neighbour Totoro. Making of the movie. 
Wonderful if you're interested in traditional animation.
Man of two tribes by Arthur Upfield.
This one was really interesting. I picked it because the  main character is part aborigen and the detective story is set in a desert of Australia. I enjoyed this one a lot, mainly because of the desert description and fun(if somewhat caricatural) characters. It was written in the 50's so beware of some not subtle chauvinism ;)

Have you read anything good lately? I am always on the lookout for new stuff to read.

Back from the hospital

My cute Marie PJ's 

I finally had my appendix removed, 6 months after that major health scare.
As you can imagine, I was not looking forward to the experience. It was my first anesthesia, my first planned stay at the hospital.
I got there at 7 am...to find out my surgery was planned at 2 pm *cries* . Long day. I was hungry. Desperately wanted some coffee, got a Xanax. That's bitter too.
All went well. The only really unpleasant memory is waking up with the breathing tube still in place (which is normal, by the way) and me struggling to get it out.
I also remember checking if I could still move all my limbs (which is not something I thought about before the surgery...go figure how brains work...).
I was not in  any pain, other than a slight headache. Even now, it's more like having exercised too much.
I was in and out all night...I probably would have slept all through the night if not for a dramatically sick roommate.
I could leave on the following afternoon. I still walk a little bit funny and the stitches are itchy.  I sleep a lot and the compression tights are annoying but I am otherwise OK.
And I am so happy that it is over.

PS: Get your cute rainbow cat patch now!

New items, preview and coupon code

I am regularly adding new items to both my shops. Most items are OOAK

For jewelry (and PATCH),  shop here
For ear plugs , shop here

My perfect adorable and ultra cute rainbow patch is available here
Reminder: it ships free with any other item from my shops!
 Also I have a coupon code running until November30, 2018
With code NOEL18 you'll get 15% off any order of  minimum 10 Euros.

And here's a preview of my first pin which will be  added to the shop at the end of the month!

Etsy rant

It has been a looooong time since I've been happy with Etsy. Have you been there long enough to remember the "Etsy Etsy Etsy Etsy" video? I have. That type of enthusiasm has long gone.

I made do with all the changes...but now I am at my wits' end. My shops had been doing relatively well, but they killed all competitions (A Little Market and Dawanda, that were my main shop sites, were bought by Etsy)...and I got nothing out of it. Worse, they seem to have done something to SEO which make my shops invisible.
According to the stats (provided by Etsy...) my views are OK...still no sale. And I have been promoting and adding new items on a very regular basis. Worse, I get ZERO custom inquiries, and I got quite a few of those in the past. I  bought some promoted listings, I didn't  break even with the 2 measly orders they brought. A stark difference to last year when I basically had no time to look after my shops and still had regular sales.
I know you can longer count on people browsing Etsy to get orders and I kind of suck at networking so this seems like an unsolvable problem.
But really, with shop one and  with with  moderately narrowed search terms my first item is on page 5 and with shop two, it's on page 10. Buyers rarely go beyond page 3.
I tried Pattern for a year, that really sucked. I had linked the shop to my domain and, seriously, I had less hits when it was linked to my Pattern site than to my crummy html page.
I think they deliberately make invisible any shop that doesn't subscribe to their new plans. I still haven't caved in.
First I'll try Shopify once I have more new items available.

Cute new items like this one ;)  (in case you haven't seen it yet...)
Rainbow cat patch available here.

Subtle...that's not me

Have you got your rainbow kitty pacth yet?
Available here! 
It ships free if you order it with an other items. And there's a shop early for Christmas discount in both my shop with code  NOEL18
I am having surgery next week so I am not sure when I'll be able to ship again after September 10. SHOP NOW ;)

For jewelry (and PATCH),  shop here
For ear plugs , shop here